Love of a Family: Chapter 3

An X-Men Evolution Fanfic

It was still early morning when they reached the old office building, but as Lance stared at it though Todd’s old binoculars, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he and Kitty weren’t going to get home that evening.

“Are there any other doors?” Lance asked. “I only see one.”

“There was another, but it’s boarded up tight now,” Evan said. “No one’s getting in that way except Kitty.”

“And do they have any other mutant prisoners?”

“Not that I saw, but I never got closer than this.”

Lance grimaced. “Right. So we have to assume there are.” He stared at the door, blocked by several armed guards. He was sure there were even more on the inside. “Kitty, can you get Pietro and Todd inside through the back wall?”

“Right now?” she asked, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. Lance tried not to stare. He had been very aware of the fact that she was not wearing her X-Men uniform, and instead wore an outfit much closer to what the rest of them wore since they’d grown out of the costumes Mystique had given them. He was trying very hard not to think about the implications of that.

Lance shook his head and put the binoculars down. “Not yet. The rest of us will charge the front door, then on our signal, you guys go in. You and Todd look for the girl. Pietro, you look for any other prisoners. We’ll keep the guards distracted and try to meet you inside.”

“No problem.”

Lance looked at Evan, then remembered this was technically his job, and maybe Lance shouldn’t have been giving the orders.

Evan shrugged. “It’s your team. You know them best. Besides, I tend to work alone now.”

Lance couldn’t help but smirk at that. “I bet Papa Wolverine’s so proud.”

Evan laughed. “Logan? Absolutely. Auntie O? Not so much.”

“So what’s the signal?” Pietro asked.

“Oh, you’ll know it when you hear it,” Tabby said.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Todd grumbled.

Kitty, Pietro, and Todd slipped away. Lance watched them through the binoculars until they rounded the corner of the building. “Okay, they’re in position. Everyone ready?”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Tabby gave a two-finger salute.

Lance rolled his eyes. “You know, the problem with living so far away is I forget how annoying you all are.”

Tabby patted his shoulder. “Oh don’t worry. The feeling’s mutual.”

Evan snickered. “Oh, yeah. Starting to feel just like old times now.”

“You callin' us the X-geeks?” Fred asked, and Evan grinned.

“Let’s go!” Tabby called, then started running to toward the building. The other’s followed her lead. “Hey, boys!” She called, waving when she reached the guards. “I’ve got something for you!” She tossed a couple handfuls of cherry bombs at them.

Boom.

The guards turned their guns on her, then the guns fell apart with a wave of Wanda’s hand. As Lance had guessed, more guards poured from the door and formed a protective semi-circle in front of the building.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Lance held up his hands, and the ground roiled under them, knocking them off balance. “We need another door! Boom Boom–”

“I got it!” Evan shouted, running past him and shooting a circle of spikes into the wall. “Blob, give me a hand here!”

Fred took off running straight for the wall, then crashed into the circle, putting all his weight on his shoulder. He crashed through, and Tabitha and Evan followed him inside.

“Let’s go,” Lance said to Wanda. She swept her arm, and all the guards' guns went flying. Well. That wasn’t terrifying at all.

They ran into the building, then hesitated. It really did look abandoned. Random half-walls that didn’t make sense without the original furniture jutted into the room. An old, heavy desk no one had cleared out sat in the middle of the floor, and several doors were scattered around with signs saying “restroom” or “stairs”–

“Down the stairs,” Lance said, and the two of them ran to the door. As they ran down, he heard something explode, then Tabby’s cackle, and knew they were going the right way.

They spilled out into a stark white room with several identical doors lined up down the walls. Several halls branched off from the main room. Fred, Tabby, and Evan were already there, fighting off another group of guards.

The building was too tall and old, and Lance knew shifting the ground too much would bring the whole thing on top of them. He couldn’t use his powers here, but he could hold his own in a hand-to-hand fight. The only problem was–

One of the guards pointed a gun at him.

He froze. However many fights he had been in in his life, this had never come up.

Or had it?

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Wolverine’s echoed in his head. First, get out of the line of fire. He reached for the guard’s wrist and shoved it up. Get a good grip on the weapon. He slid his hand up until he could grip the actual gun. Now break his grip. He twisted. The guard yelled and let go. He stepped away and pointed it at the guard. He was probably holding it wrong.

The gun in his hands trembled, and for a second he was afraid his hands were shaking, then it flew up into the air and joined all the others Wanda had collected. Each one fell apart into several pieces, then dropped back down to the ground. The guards started to retreat.

“Spyke!” Kitty called. Lance looked up and saw her and Todd running down the hall. “She’s not here!”

Pietro dashed past them. “No one is. Whole place is cleared out. They knew we were coming.”

“That’s not quite true,” a deep voice said from the far side of the room. “We knew someone would come, although I assumed it would be that group of sewer rats.”

They all turned and saw a group of men standing at the entrance to one of the halls. The one in front looked like a vampire from an old movie with his white face, weird eyes, and dramatic cape with a collar taller than his head. The group behind him all wore similarly garish and dramatic outfits, which, compared with the all-black uniforms of the guards, suggested they were probably mutants.

Seriously, the colorful, superhero-like costumes had appealed to him too . . . at seventeen. Dark, comfortable clothes were much better for blending in, and they didn’t stain so easy.

Evan took a step towards the vampire. “Say that again!”

The vampire ignored him. “So this is Mystique’s Brotherhood I’ve heard so much about.”

Todd joined Evan. “Yo, we don’t work for Mystique no more! We do what we want!”

The vampire looked amused. “I’m sure you do. But since that now involves destroying my labs, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you to my Nasty Boys.” He turned around and walked down the hall, waving to the group around him.

Fred looked over at Lance. “Did he just call them nasty boys?”

Lance didn’t have a chance to answer, because Evan attacked them, shooting a wave of spikes at the group. Just before they reached their targets, the man with the pink hair and a striped purple and yellow jacket (seriously, why?) sucked in a breath–and yelled.

It was like nothing Lance had ever heard. Noise rattled around in his head until his ears went numb. The vibrations rattled the room and sent every one of them falling to their knees. Evan’s spikes fell uselessly to the ground.

Lance clamped his hands over his ears and tried to make it stop. The sound waves pounded against him even as he curled up to shield himself. His head ached, his teeth rattled, and still the noise continued.

The ground under him shook. He needed the noise to stop. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.

The ground rolled, and the sound cut off abruptly. His ears rang.

He sat up, and realized a large chunk of the ceiling had fallen just in front of the other group of mutants. He had done that.

Oh.

Oh no.

The building was still trembling, but he wasn’t doing it. Another chunk of ceiling fell, and he could see the nasty group or whatever they were called running down the hall they had come from.

So there was another door. They had just missed it.

More of the ceiling fell, and Lance realized they had to let the group escape. Kitty and Pietro might be able to follow them without dying, but the rest of them couldn’t. They needed to get out the way they came as fast as they could.

He made it to his feet and reached for Wanda’s hand to help her up. Then he looked up and saw Kitty running for the hall the others had escaped down.

The last few guards fled after their employers, and Kitty ran after them. One of them grabbed for her as she passed, but she ducked under their arm. Her head turned, and she didn’t see the guard ahead of her turn around and pull out his gun.

“Kitty!”

He didn’t hear the gunshot, but he heard her scream.

Someone yelled her name. It wasn’t him, because he just kept saying, “please please please,” over and over as he ran to her. He didn’t know who he was begging.

He knelt next to her, then froze when he saw the red stain spreading across her jacket and heard her gasping. He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a doctor. He couldn’t help her. He couldn’t get her out. He couldn’t–

Someone balled up a jacket and pressed it to her side. “I need your help,” Evan said, remarkably calmly. “We need to get her out of here, but she shouldn’t move too much. Here, put your arm under her legs. I’ll try to keep her steady as you pick her up.”

Lance did everything Evan told him. “Move down.” “Stop!” “Okay, get your arm under her shoulders.” Kitty was unconscious by the time he finally stood up and carried her out. That couldn’t be a good sign.

When he got out of the building, everyone else was there, except–

“Tabby ran ahead to the hospital,” Fred told him. “She went–” He started to point, but Lance cut him off.

“I know where it is.” He started walking as quickly as he could without jostling her too much.

Thankfully, the hospital wasn’t far. He made it inside and heard Tabby shout, “There she is!”

A nurse ran over and helped him transfer her to one of those rolling beds. He asked Lance several questions about what had happened. Lance hoped his answers made sense, but he couldn’t remember them. They wheeled her away, and another nurse directed him and Tabby to some seats where they could wait.

He couldn’t shake the feeling he wouldn’t see her again.

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